Over quarantine, Michelle Muñoz, a current senior here at Logan, started a club during quarantine which helped reduce loneliness in elders at nursing homes. During the pandemic, many people had nothing to do and had very little interaction with other people, especially the elderly. During this time, many students were learning virtually, without much interaction. This was also true for Muñoz since Logan was doing distance learning. Because of this, the club started as an online format using Zoom in a virtual type of situation. For the next school year, they were back in person, so the club was started up again in person.
A lot of Muñoz’s hobbies, like soccer and volunteering at different sites, were paused when COVID was at its peak. During quarantine, she spent a lot of time on social media like many of us.
“I felt like I needed to do something new, and when I saw the advertisement for LFR on Tiktok, it was perfect!”, Muñoz said.
The advertisement showed how Letters For Rose was a national organization that works with nursing homes in order to reduce loneliness within elders. Right when she saw that advertisement, she knew it was a great opportunity and something she passionately wanted to do.
Once school was in person, Muñoz and her peers who helped her in the club knew that they had to start up again. They started with the club recruitment fair that Logan has towards the beginning of the year and received over 100 sign ups. They were stoked about this.
“When we saw we had this many sign-ups, we couldn’t believe it,” Muñoz said.
She expected only a handful of people to sign up, but they had much more than that. Throughout the whole year, they were getting amazing participation from students, accumulating interest and ideas. They got hundreds and hundreds of letters and artwork.
Ms. Ahmadi, an English and Puente teacher, is the adviser of the club. During quarantine, Muñoz and her friends asked Ahmadi if she could be the adviser for their club. They explained the whole concept to her, and she was more than willing to be their adviser. It was all going well until Muñoz, and her peers noticed that interest seemed to be waning. They weren’t getting as many letters. This raised a panic because they didn’t know what to do. It also didn’t help that this was happening near the end of the semester so everyone was busy with things.
“In order to be able to provide something to each individual at the masonic home, a certain number of works need to be submitted; however, there have been some months that the number was not met,” Ahmadi said.
In order to meet this number, Muñoz and the rest of the club cabinet had to make the letters. Ever since then, they haven’t had any issues with the club. Ms. Ahmadi loves being able to be a part of this and believes that the girls are doing an amazing job at keeping the club going.
“I know how much a kind gesture can make someone’s day, so to see the number of students that are part of Letters for Rose makes me feel proud of our Logan community,” Ahmadi said.
Letters for Rose has over 100 members and participants. One of those participants is Sabrina Moreno, a Logan senior. She joined when first coming back during her junior year. She saw this club during the club recruitment fair because of the bright pink and black poster. She was also in need of community service hours. She didn’t have much at the time because of the extended time away from the world during the pandemic. When Muñoz and her peers explained to Moreno what the club was about, Moreno was all in. Not only was she getting community service hours, but she was contributing to a good cause.
“Writing these letters gives elderly people a little insight of what’s been going on in our lives and I think that’s cool,” Moreno said.
There are meetings the first Thursday of every month either in the cafeteria or in room 107, which is their adviser’s classroom. There are a lot of artistic students who contribute and their talents show in the pieces of artwork that are delivered. Students put in a lot of time on pieces of artwork or letters that go to people whom they don’t know. But what matters to them is that they make amazing pieces that the elders can appreciate.
“The thoughtfulness that students were putting into their work made me realize that they genuinely enjoyed being a part of this club and wanted to do something special for those in the masonic home,” Ahmadi said.
This year, Logan already had their club recruitment fair. Muñoz and the rest of the club cabinet were a part of this year’s club recruitment fair to promote their club to get new members.
“It doesn’t take much work for us to write a simple letter or draw a picture,” Muñoz said. “But to that elder who receives it, it means the world to them.”
